September 18, 2006

Unusual Recording Techniques #1: Lou Reed's "The Kids"

While flipping through a five-year-old copy of NME in a WFMU bathroom, I came across
an article about "scary music" by Mark Beaumont. He wrote that the little kids who can be heard wailing on Lou Reed's track The Kids (from his 1973 LP Berlin) were the young children of producer Bob Ezrin, who were crying because their Dad had told them that their mother had just been killed in a horrible accident. Their mother was fine - the track needed some crying, so Producer Ezrin produced some. The crying starts at the 5:17 mark: MP3.

A few years later, Ezrin went on to co-produce Pink Floyd's The Wall, on which he utilized another group of children to great effect, the chorus of British children from The Islington Green School who sing the "We Dont Need No Education" chorus on Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2). In 2004, 23 of those kids got together to sue for the session fee they never received. No word on whether Ezrin's own children (now around 40 years old) are planning their own suit.

No, if I could've backed it up, I would have done so instead of citing where I read it. There are numerous references to this tale online, but I couldn't find any in which Ezrin himself is quoted. I also couldn't find any in which Ezrin denies it.

There's also "Mr. Smith In Rhodesia" by Swedish sound poet Ake Hodell, which was considered an attack on the British government and actually banned for years. The group of kids that were assembled in studio to rattle off various repeated phrases (including "Mr. Smith is a murderer") sparked a lot of debate about the use of children for a political message:

"The children came to the Swedish Radio one afternoon. Under the guidance of an Englishman, they recorded the texts on tape. So that they wouldnt be bored in the studio, we gave them lemonade and biscuits. They were of course also paid for their work. Imagine our surprise a few weeks later when we found out about the scandal caused by this recording. When they returned home, the children told their unknowing parents that they had been a part of a composition which was directed against Prime Minister Ian Smiths white dictatorship in Rhodesia. The parents were shocked, turning first to the British Embassy in Stockholm, then to English newspapers and the BBC.

The Daily Telegraph put the news on its front page, where a creative reporter was allowed to write the article. The five children, whose age had now sunk to 6-7 years old, were bribed by candy and later tricked into appearing in an anti-American opera at the Modern Museum in Stockholm. At the end of the opera, they were placed in front of a wall and forced to say, "Mr Smith is a murderer." The reporter neglected to mention that the children also said, "Mr Smith is our friend and father", "Mr Smith gives us food and clothing" etc.

The Swedish tabloids reported the scandal in large headlines. The British Embassy protested to the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation (SR), after which SRs program director at the time, Nils-Olof Franzén, explained in an interview that the recording would be destroyed, which it was. Fylkingen, which was co-producer of the recording, was not satisfied, and financed a new recording in England involving children whose parents were quite positive towards the political content of the piece. This is the version which was presented at Fylkingens and the Swedish Radios festival at the Modern Museum in April 1970. In spite of this new recording, the piece had since then been banned from transmission on the Swedish Radio, but from this performance on, the ban was lifted."

Definitely not the case when Yo La Tengo gathered tykes to chant "Nuclear War, it's a motherfucker", I suppose.

On the song "The Kids" one hears children crying and calling out for their mommy. The sound is quite realistic and chilling. It has often been written that Ezrin went home one day and told his children that their mommy wasn't coming home any more, recording the resultant trauma for the LP. According to Ezrin the true story is that he went home and told his seven year old son David that he was doing a play in the studio and he needed some kids' voices to sound scared because their mom was being taken away. The first few attempts didn't sound terrifying enough but on the third, unprompted, his two year old joined in and just started screaming. The two children screamed so loud that they distorted the tape. He found that "the more compressed it got the more anguished it seemed. Most people can't listen to it."

The crying heard underneath is simply bedtime at the Ezrin household with the kids letting mom and pop know they are none too happy about having to retire for the night. Ezrin continues: "It's something you've seen a thousand times but because of the compression on it and the way that it's in your face [in the mix] it's relentless. And it's totally dry. It's completely dry, it's distorted, and it's compressed to death. It makes it so unbelievably emotional people accused me of beating my kids."

Geez, getting kids to cry is hardly a challenge. Stick 'em in front of the TV, let them get sucked into a show, then tell 'em they've watched too much tv and turn it off. It would probably work with a video game or a piece of candy.

"Billy, Sally, I have some bad news. We're not your actual parents. Your real Mom and Dad have been out of the country for the last 8 years, and me and your Mom have just been helping them out by watching you all this time. Your actual Mom and Dad will be here in 15 minutes and they'll take you to your new home in Gary, Indiana. Go upstairs now and pack." (apologies to Barry Yourgrau)

I'm shocked that no one has mentioned Ezrin in conjunction with Alice Cooper's "School's Out." According to Wall lore, Ezrin was stuck on what to do with the end of "Another Brick In The Wall pt. 2" and said something like "DUH, I produced 'School's Out'" and then got the kids to sing.